China Part II: Macau & Hong Kong in Magical Realism

Macau: On Monday morning, we packed up, grabbed a taxi, and headed back to the Beijing airport. Flight was delayed a bit, but the airport is nice and very modern, so time passed quickly. Watched some episodes of True Detective on the plane, and landed in Hong Kong around 5pm. There is a ferry terminal adjacent to the airport, so we went straight there and got tickets for the ferry to Macau.

Macau is an island near Hong Kong, used to be owned by the Portuguese, now it is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, like Hong Kong. You do not need a visa to go to these from the US, like you do for mainland China. The primary industry in Macau is gambling, about seven times the size of Las Vegas! The next ferry from HK to Macau wasn't for an hour and a half, so we killed some time in the waiting room, then got on the ferry.

As we were getting on, it was steamy and pouring rain. The rain was pouring down so heavy it made even the HK skyline look completely dark, but we sat by the window and looked out anyway. During the ride the rain let up a bit and coming into Macau, we were greeted by a spectacular view of all the casinos. So many lights, all different shapes and colors, and everything so bright! We were both just grinning - it was really neat.

We flew through the terminal and boarded a very posh bus to Cotai island and to our hotel, the Hotel Okura. The Okura is a japanese themed boutique hotel in the Galaxy Hotel complex - very quiet and luxurious! We got settled in and washed up, then headed out to grab some dinner because we were both famished. By this time it was around 11pm so not a ton was open on a Monday night. I thought some Asian fusion would be nice, so I searched by what was open and we headed to Cascades downstairs at our hotel. It ended up being more of a lobby lounge than a restaurant, but we had a perfect view of the water/light show from our seats so that was bonus. I had a singaporean-style noodle bowl and A had steamed dumplings. Both were solid, but we were zonked so after dinner we just took a few laps around the hotel, checked out the casino, and went to sleep.

The next day we got up fairly early and headed out to our hotel's rooftop wave pool, complete with fake beach. Very cool. We saw on the pool schedule that there was yoga starting in a few minutes, which sounded really nice to hopefully work out some of the kinks after the marathon, so we ran upstairs to get changed into some semblance of yoga clothes. Of course this was when they were cleaning our room but they gave us a minute to change. We went up to upstairs pool and they had no idea what we were talking about and said the yoga was downstairs. We said we had just been there, so they called down and finally confirmed that there was no yoga. Great, that makes total sense since it was printed ON.YOUR.SCHEDULE?! (Bah!) I was totally pissed and now not dressed for the pool, but the cleaner was still in our room and I was starving again and cranky, so sweet A got me a fruit plate and some soda I think.

I ate and felt a bit better, then we went upstairs to get changed, I got my book, and we camped out on comfy lawn chairs, with umbrellas. We read, we had drinks, we went in the wave pool. The swim-up bar was closed (BAH!) and the waves were kind of lame but overall it was really nice and relaxing. We had lunch and returned to our lounging, but around 3pm the lifeguards came and said they were closing the pool due to predicted thunderstorms. (Triple BAH!) We went upstairs, took a bath with bath salts in the (huge, egg shaped!) tub, and we watched TV in the tub because of course it had its own flatscreen. I fell asleep in the bathtub and A got bored so then it was time to get out. By then it was around time to get ready for dinner, so we did that. A had the hotel concierge make us reservations at Robuchon au Dôme in the Grand Lisboa Hotel. The Grand Lisboa is the only building in the world with four Michelin starred restaurants under one roof, two of them (Robuchon and The 8) with three stars!

The building itself is completely beyond - the exterior is shaped like a shimmering psychedelic lotus flower, 58 stories high! Robuchon au Dôme is located at the top of the building, right under the "dome" of the lotus flower. There are tons of amazing artifacts and jade carvings in the lobby, including one of the largest diamonds in the world, then from there you take two elevators to get up to the restaurant. You walk into the restaurant and BAM - there is a huge, three story high dangling silver chandelier...all the decor is black and silver art deco, and everything is completely over the top. We were greeted by an amazing piano player who looked exactly like an asian John Waters. He was seriously one of the best parts of an already amazing night. We got a seat right by the window with a terrific view, and then the parade of food began.

We opted for the seven course tasting menu with wine pairings...were tempted by the twelve course but knew we'd be too full to taste anything after seven anyway.

0 - The meal started with a welcome bite of a little fish ball in a tiny spoon - very flavorful and tasty!

1 - The official amuse was a white asparagus panna cotta with tiny asparagus spears, caviar, and some colorful drizzles of olive oil: purple, green, yellow.

1.5 - Then they brought out the bread basket with salted butter imported from France. It was so good, we shared a miniature baguette, tiny ciabatta, brown bread with lots of grains, all with plenty of butter. I was trying so hard not to fill up on bread but it was sooo good.

Wine pairing for first few courses was a fairly heavy, buttery white with a pretty flowery label. (2009 Condrieu, La Doriane, Domain E. Guigal) It went well with everything.

2 - Then we had lobster ravioli, but unlike any lobster ravioli I had ever had! It came on a huge, donut shaped glass plate, with an indentation in the middle and the inside of the glass filled with bright yellow netting. The ravioli itself was really delicious and unusual, the "pastry" was more like the wrapper of a summer roll, and the filling was whole lobster with sweet and sour turnip, nutmeg, and rosemary. So good.

3 - After that was the "egg without its shell" which was also unique - a soft egg with more tiny wild asparagus, even tinier ravioli filled with compte cheese, in asparagus foam. A didn't love this one (he hates eggs and soft foods in general) but I liked it.

Second wine pairing - another strong white wine from France (2008 Ermitage, Le Meal Blanc, M. Chapoutier)

4 - Pan seared french sea bass (small round portion) served in a bowl of broth and veggies dotted with herb olive oil.

Third wine pairing - slightly chilled light red. (1998 Etienne Guigal, Chateau D'Ampuis, E. Guigal) I just googled this since two of the wines were from here and it's pretty neat - the vineyards are over 2400 years old and still have the original Roman terraced stone walls, very cool.

5 - The main course was the only one with two options. A had the "Kagoshima" beef, seared in red wine sauce served with baby carrots, spinach, and potato croquette, and a piece of toast with bone marrow.

My main course was a piece of duck breast with seared foie gras over fruit compote. Of course we tasted both, and both were good, but of the two, I think I preferred the duck. I don't usually like fois and wouldn't intentionally order it, but this was seared really nicely and the heaviness was cut by the fruit. A's meat was a little earthy for me, and the bone marrow made it even heavier to me.

6 - After the main courses came a palate cleanser of black currant/yogurt sorbet with slices of green apple. This sounds heavy but was very refreshing.

7 - After that they brought out the (optional) cheese trolley. I wasn't hungry but how can you say no to a cart of cheese?! I had a slice of comte cheese and some soft white mild cheese (camembert I think) but A went buck wild with the stinky cheeses kept under the glass domes! Brave man. I tried some of his bleu cheese but was trying to save room for dessert so passed on the other one he got, no idea what it was.

7.5 - After the cheese course we had tea, green tea for me and A went wild again and got a coffee. (I say this because usually he is up half the night if he has caffeine in the evening.) This gave me some mental room for dessert - which was perfect because shortly after that, another cart rolled up containing all manner of delicious desserts!

This was basically a dream from childhood, basically a cart of the most decadent treats, and you could pick everything you wanted, and as many as you wanted. The servers were actually pushing us to take more! A tried several different sorbets and this s'mores napoleon cake, I had some miniature tarts and different fruit jellies. Everything was great. Actually throughout the trip I found desserts in Macau/Hong Kong very nice as they were not as sweet as American/European desserts.

After that we rolled out of there (but not before our servers gave us with a HUGE cake, beautifully wrapped,"for tomorrow" - nice touch), and downstairs to the casino. There was a bar there, and we grabbed drinks. Unlike Vegas, where if you are gambling, people come around and bring you free drinks, in Macau they only seemed to bring around tea or bottled water. There was an arial show and then some sort of can-can dancing on a stage at the bar, so we watched that for a while. We're not typically big gamblers but thought we might play blackjack for awhile, but the casino only took Hong Kong dollars instead of Macau dollars (weird!) and A's ATM card wasn't working so we just walked around and then went home. We walked around the Galaxy hotel a bit, then went upstairs to the room.

The next day, Wednesday, we got up, made coffee, and had a couple of slices of the (amazing!) bonus lemon cake from Robuchon. Again, not too sweet so made a very nice breakfast. We lay around a bit, then got packed up, checked out, and went down to the casino. We played roulette which was not my usual game but pretty fun! Blew the equivalent of $40USD between the two of us, and headed back to the ferry. In the ferry terminal again we had time to kill, so we bought a bottle of wine and ate some more of the lemon cake. Ferry ride was short (the weekend after we left, there was actually a guy who swam from HK to Macau) and it was super easy to take the subway from the ferry terminal to our hotel.

Hong Kong: Our hotel, Hotel Indigo, was located in the Wan Chai neighborhood, a central but very funky/historic neighborhood. A picked this hotel for me as it had a very cool infinity pool on the top floor where the bottom actually peeks out over the street thirty stories high, but the high point for me was actually the room and the location. We had a corner room with floor to ceiling windows and a great view of the skyline. We relaxed in the room a bit, finished the lemon cake and opened the bottle of red we bought at duty free. Put our swimsuits on with normal clothes over them, then went upstairs to the rooftop pool and bar. Skybar was having two-for-one happy hour so I had a couple of cosmopolitans (1994!) and A had some dirty martinis. After that we went across to the pool and went swimming, then into the hot tub for a while. Very nice!

After our dip we went to get ready for the night, then walked around the neighborhood. It was kind of an off hour, but we walked by TED's Lookout and it looked cute and was almost entirely full except for a two top, so we thought that was a good sign. We ordered a couple of cocktails and two orders of tacos, one fish and one shrimp. Drinks and both tacos were okay, not great, so we took off after the first round. After a bit we went into Slim's where A was very happy to eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. After the peanuts were finished we realized everyone outside in the park right outside was having much more fun, so we got a bottle of wine and some snacks at 7-11 and had an outdoor picnic. It was really nice, and a great end to the night.

The next day we slept in, I did some work, and we hung out until it was time to meet up with former colleague of mine. Really long-term faves might remember her as "British" -about seven (!) years ago she was one of two women who worked for me and were constantly feuding. Not the best situation, but British went back to the UK and was in London until about a month ago, when her firm sent her to HK on a 3 month rotation. So we met up! Her corporate housing was also in Wan Chai, just a few buildings away from our hotel, so I suggested we meet up at the Skybar after work. We had a drink there, but then she had a work emergency so we got on the subway to meet her at Jordan train station. (I like how in HK each of the subway exits have an assigned letter, so you can say meet at Jordan A exit, and not wonder if you are in the wrong place. Very efficient!) Once she got there we walked through a ton of street markets to this wild little hole in the wall place that had some very authentic Chinese food! I was really thirsty and the food was spicy so I ended up drinking a very large beer which filled up my belly and didn't leave much room for more food! It was good though, still don't know the name or think I could find it on a map if I needed to.

After that we walked to the Lan Kwai Fong ("LKF") district...LKF is the popular expat place to go on Thursday nights, and also ladies' night in many bars. I have never really seen this to be a huge thing in NYC, but apparently it's huge in HK! We went into 6° - had a bunch of vodka drinks for myself and British, and only had to pay for A's beers...sweet deal! After a while the scene got a little loud and frenetic so we went to Wyndham the 4th, a "secret" bar that British knew of. It was in a totally random office building and we were all kind of wondering if it was the right place until we saw a guy in a suit laying on the stairs. Yep, we're in the right place. Upstairs the vibe was much classier, very elegant and comfortable. We each had a nice cocktail, walked around the lovely terrace, and relaxed on the couches.

After the secret bar we took a cab back to Wan Chai, dropped British off, then walked around and had one last drink at Mes Amis. This was pretty interesting actually - we sat in the window and watched a variety of transactions going on in the street. Wan Chai is the old red light district of Hong Kong, so I guess it was appropriate. Walked home and went to sleep.

Slept in really late on Friday, our last full day in HK. We wanted to get up to see the view from the Peak, but everyone said don't even bother if it wasn't clear out, and it was pouring rain so we slept in without remorse. We did a bit of walking around/shopping but otherwise didn't do much. We had lunch at local spot 22 Ships which was really good. I had a glass of rose and a swordfish special, it was really tasty. A had lamb sliders with pickles and cucumber relish and a glass of red wine. Wine with lunch, what a vacation treat! We couldn't decide on desserts so got two: gin and tonic sorbet and ice cream, and the wild card - strawberries with toasted marshmallows and black olives. The G&T sorbet was good but the strawberry thing was shockingly delicious. The strawberries were sweet and tart, with a touch of balsamic vinegar, then the marshmallow was super caramelized and gooey...the black olives were crushed into tiny pieces, and looked/tasted almost like crumbled oreo crumbs! Bizarre and delicious.

After lunch it was time to head out to West Kowloon for happy hour with some of my analysts who had just started working on a rotation in Hong Kong the Monday prior. A had actually been wanting to go to Ozone (he likes go to the highest place in each city we visit) and then one of my analysts suggested it so it was kismet! The bar was on the 118th floor of the Ritz Carlton and had a truly fantastic view of Victoria Harbor and all around. We had to take two elevators to get there, reminded me a lot of the old Windows on the World.

Daytime panorama, taken by A with his camera phone before everyone got there. Looking out onto the city, I was really reminded of what an island Hong Kong is (or 235 rather separate islands!)

The kids were very sweet, and seemed to be doing well. Actually in just five days in Hong Kong, they had already done a ton of social events and seemed to be integrating into the local office life and expat social life very well. Group shot:

It was nice to have a drink and a chat with them, but the real star of the evening was the Night-time Hong Kong Skyline:

After drinks and snacks A and I had to head out to our dinner reservation at this supposedly hot new restaurant, Fu Lu Shou. Place had just opened and looked really cute, plus the name means "good fortune, prosperity, and longevity" in Chinese. This was another semi-"secret" place where you had to get the door code in advance. Once inside, the space was indeed cute, we were seated by the patio which was really nice, but so smoky, and on the couches unfortunately was a group of really loud, boorish expats. Most annoyingly they were chain-smoking continuously, and for the first twenty minutes, a twenty-something british version of the "Tan Mom" appeared to be breastfeeding (!) a small infant (!!) (This was around 11pm and again...it was too smoky for me, much less a baby. Poor kid.) Decor was nice and the staff was exceedingly nice, but the restaurant was blazing hot and with the weird crowd, we didn't end up staying too long. We tried their sampler plate which was probably passable, but with the heat and the smoke I wasn't in the mood for hot, heavy food, and that was all they had. We had a drink and a nibble and hightailed it out of there.

After Fu Lu Shoo, we headed back to Wan Chai to grab a drink at Super Giant at the Mira Moon hotel. The place looked so cute, plus they had happy hour until 1am, so we were super excited. We went upstairs to the patio bar, which was nice but much smaller than it looked online, and ordered a couple of sangrias. Seriously it was the worst sangria I've ever had, and I have made sangria with 2 buck chuck and canned fruit, and also regularly partake in $3 all night rose sangria in Chelsea. The place was totally dead and there was a weird smell in the restaurant area, so again we left in a hurry.

After that we cut our losses, went to sleep, then woke up early on Saturday morning to pack up and take the train back to Hong Kong airport. Very easy trip, we bought some souvenirs at the airport, and then jumped on our long, but direct flight back to JFK. I alternated sleeping and watching movies, and again Cathay Pacific made it quite comfortable (or at least as comfortable as 19 hours in Economy class can be.) Immigration and customs were blessedly short, and as we walked to the Air Train, my mom surprised us by picking us up and giving us a ride home! She is too sweet and it was such a nice surprise.

This entry is already as long as a volume in the Game of Thrones series, so I will end here.